1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a loading and unloading station for substrates with one or more magazines that serve as a substrate buffer. The invention is capable of mapping features of the substrates and indexing the substrates in a Z-axis direction.
2. Brief Description of Related Developments
To minimize process defects, substrate processing equipment manufacturers have attempted to prevent particles from reaching the substrates. Systems have been designed to isolate substrates from particles during storage, transport and transfer into processing equipment. The Standard Mechanical Interface (SMIF) system has been devised and used to reduce particle contamination by significantly reducing particle fluxes onto substrates. This has been accomplished by mechanically ensuring that during transport, storage and processing of the substrates, the gaseous media (such as air or nitrogen) surrounding the substrates is essentially stationary relative to the substrates and by ensuring that particles from the ambient outside environment do not enter the immediate internal substrate environment.
A typical SMIF system utilizes minimum volume, dust proof boxes or carriers for storing and transporting open rack substrate cassettes. The carriers have doors designed to mate with doors on interface ports on the substrate processing equipment. In a typical SMIF system, a carrier is positioned at the interface port and the carrier and port doors are opened simultaneously. A manipulator may then individually remove the substrates and transport them to a load lock for processing in a vacuum system.
The SMIF box is bottom loading design and is generally used to carry substrates sized to a diameter of 200 mm. More recently, carriers have been developed that are of the front opening unified pod (FOUP) design, intended to carry larger substrates.
Present carrier systems typically couple a single carrier to the substrate processing system at a time. It would be advantageous to provide a substrate loading and unloading system capable of interfacing a number of carriers to the substrate processing system, allowing a larger number of substrates to be processed before the carriers must be emptied and refilled.
With either a cassette or FOUP carrier, a front end is typically provided between the carrier and the substrate processing equipment to align each substrate and/or to place each substrate at a specific XYZ location for access by a transport apparatus or robot. It would be advantageous to provide a substrate loading and unloading system capable of determining the locations of substrates and features of those substrates within each carrier. It would also be advantageous to provide a substrate loading and unloading system capable of placing a substrate at a specific XYZ location. These features could allow such a substrate loading and unloading system to be coupled directly to a substrate processing system, eliminating the need for a front end for substrate alignment or placement.
In light of the foregoing state of the art the present invention has been conceived and is now reduced to practice.